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Podio

Podio

Overview

What is Podio?

Podio is a cloud-based platform for organizing team communication, business processes, and reporting in project management workspaces; also it may be used as a light CRM platform. It enables workflow automation and integrations. It includes a free version and paid…

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Recent Reviews
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Popular Features

View all 18 features
  • Task Management (24)
    3.1
    31%
  • Team Collaboration (26)
    3.1
    31%
  • Workflow Automation (25)
    1.2
    12%
  • Document Management (22)
    1.1
    11%
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Pricing

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Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.podio.com/site/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $9 per month
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Features

Project Management

Project management software provides capabilities to streamline management of complex projects through task management, team collaboration and workflow automation

5.3
Avg 7.5

Professional Services Automation

Features that support professional services organizations

6.7
Avg 7.4
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Product Details

What is Podio?

Podio is a cloud-based collaboration service that was founded in 2009 and acquired by Citrix in 2012. Podio supplies a web-based platform for organizing team communication, business processes, data and content in project management workspaces; also it may be used as a social intranet or as a light CRM platform. Its reporting features allow a user to observe sales pipelines and manage budgets and time. Its task management interface is meant to be lively and dynamic as a social networking site's to facilitate sharing and task delegations, and supports document uploading. Workflows can be improved via automation of various triggered tasks. It integrates email and many familiar programs and applications (e.g. Dropbox, Gmail and Google Apps, Gotomeeting, Excel) to expand functionality, and it is mobile accessible. Podio began as a free service and a free option still remains, though three tiers of paid plans (Basic, Plus, and Premium) are now offered which expand support options from implementation only to a priority lifetime user able to gain support at any time (Premium), and limited access to shared projects for subordinate team members. However core features are supported across the tiers.

Podio Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Podio is a cloud-based platform for organizing team communication, business processes, and reporting in project management workspaces; also it may be used as a light CRM platform. It enables workflow automation and integrations. It includes a free version and paid packages with additional features.

Podio starts at $9.

Asana, Jira Software, and Basecamp are common alternatives for Podio.

Reviewers rate Support for Waterfall Methodology highest, with a score of 9.4.

The most common users of Podio are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(131)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 42)
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Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Podio extensively. We also use the Workflow Automations to help where Podio has shortfalls. Podio is the backbone of our sales, support, product development and management. Podio allowed us to build the workspace we needed which is fairly unique. The flexibility to customize your apps to hold sales, prospects, projects, support, etc was incredible. We share data from Podio with our custom SaaS application and vice versa. It feels like we have leveraged every possible feature Podio has to offer.
  • Customizable apps to fit your specific needs
  • Free to explore and use basic features until you grow into more
  • Clean interface
  • Crippling feature development leaves you wondering if Podio is close to end-of-life
  • Severe lack of communication. You HAVE to figure out your own solutions no matter what you pay for the software.
  • Inability to get even basic reports across multiple applications.
  • Data is siloed in each app. It has relationships but you cannot generate queries based on related apps.
  • Downtime. Podio has gone done far too many times for days without any compensation to lost time.
  • Very slow page builds. Data seems to be coming from slow datasources and takes a long time to complete rendering.
I can't see anyone engaging Podio unless it is for a very small project. When Podio launched, it was AMAZING. Unfortunately, it has sat stale for years on end while other, more useful competitors created better features. You will quickly find yourself looking for ways to migrate to a HubSpot, Airtable, Notion, etc.
Heather Neisen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Podio is our key tool we use for our account service team. We have built several custom apps that allow us to track everything we do for our current clients.
  • Keeping track of hundreds of our client contacts and key information and meeting notes.
  • Customizable apps that work with Globiflow to remind us of key deadlines.
  • Customizable templates within apps that remind us to log the right information.
  • The interface is not pretty. It could use some design upgrades.
  • Globiflow is complicated to use and takes a lot of time to set up correctly. The training forums are complicated too.
  • Every so often the entire site goes down - comes back without info lost, but downtime is hard during a business day.
Podio is a great database and keeps our account service team accountable to one another as well as on-track with our projects.
Bella Castilla | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Citrix Podio is one of the best project management software that is available in the market to possibly solve all the problems related to the management of projects. It is helping me a lot and probably the best software that I come across in reaching the accomplishment of my project. I have been using this software for a very long time in my organization and it is helping me a lot in automatically building up the tasks and then assigned it to the other team members to keep everyone’s input on the task very easily.
  • The quality build tool that helped me a lot in the recent two projects, that they had a lot of data in bulk which Citrix [Podio] managed very well and did notify me on every single step so that I did not miss any main deadline.
  • Another stand-out feature that I like the most which is its notification and alerts system. The software notifies me of the task progress, tells me about the due date, and alerts me when the task gets overdue.
  • This helps me a lot in sharing the real-time progress on the projects to the customers to engage them confidently with the work productivity.
  • The main drawback that I faced while starting on the platform that it is not easy to customize according to the needs. There are some rules and restriction on the platform which do not allows having the platform in your own customizable style.
  • Secondly, customer support is drastically unprofessional. Recently I got stuck in some features which I wanted to explore. For which I texted their support and they were really unprofessional, did not even listen to the query full, and never respond again which is the biggest drawback.
It is the perfect solution available in the market to easily manage a large amount of project information easily. Also helps in managing the project easily. A real-time notification system, clear UI, and clean dashboard make it even more reliable to use. I would recommend this software to other organization to give a chance to this software and save their time and be productive in the organization.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Podio is used across the entire company. It solves any communication problems in each department of our agency, as we are able to log/keep track of every action/request/step that is taken along the way through a month, and it allows for an easy path to recall each previous month's direction/actions/efforts for clients.
  • Compartmentalized, in a good way. Every option for a project is represented and easy to see.
  • Customization: They work with our teams to help develop the tool and customize it to unique processes within our organization.
  • @Mentioning makes tagging associated workers with each job a breeze.
  • Needs to be mobile friendly.
  • Needs to crash less/have fewer issues. It's a regular thing for our teams to experience outages, or for Podio to be needing updates by the provider.
  • It has gotten better, but it can be glitchy (a user may input something, only for it to not actually take effect, costing time and money to find where the issue was and potentially miss deadlines). It's understandable that the platform is constantly improving and adjusting to the needs of our agency, and we appreciate that it's not a one size fits all solution. Because of that, we're more prone to be okay with minor outages.
Podio is well suited for multi-department companies that need to be able to log communication between each other in order to have a historical record of what happens on a daily basis. We are roughly 150 employees and 8 different departments. Previously, we relied on email and a more crude workflow program. That program just couldn't handle the volume of tasks/requests/jobs that an agency of our size produces, hence why we needed a more robust platform. Podio fit that bill nicely.
Gill Riskoff | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Citrix [Podio] has an appealing interface, where everything is well organized, and by a sudden glance, I can tell about which of my team member has put how much effort into the project completion. Further, it provides me information about the about of time sent on each project, thus I can calculate the working hours and could evaluate the progress of each individual. I can say surely say that this project management tool is playing an important role in our company and dragging us toward success.
  • I can easily collaborate with each other and could insert URLs and videos for throwing better effect on the presentations, in this way I am in the position of better guiding my customers.
  • It allows me to do commenting so that being a team we can give suggestions to one another thus, enhancing the work efficiency.
  • It is an affordable platform which provide better services in less cost.
  • Project sharing is a bit difficult. [Citrix Podio] must introduce some new and advanced features for sharing projects.
  • It is also difficult to remove someone from ongoing project.
[Citrix Podios's] customer support is very quick and they provide you an option to convert your project into small tasks so that you can better assist your team and extract maximum work out of them hence I will totally recommend its usage. I could not think that keeping track of tasks could be this much easier and smart. It is a fully customizable tool that manages my tasks efficiently and deal with them effectively.
April 22, 2020

Solid Software

Olivia Sheppard | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I'm a solo attorney. I use it for task management and to track client fee payments.
  • Maintains client contact information.
  • It's customizable, so I can add apps that I will use and do without things I don't need.
  • It's good for keeping track of tasks.
  • Each app needs to integrate better with the apps within the platform
It is well suited for a "home base" practice management software because it does not force useless features on you that don't pertain to your practice area. You simply choose the apps that work well with your practice and don't bother with the apps that are not helpful for you. I do supplement with a CRM.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our entire organization uses Podio....Manufacturing, AP/HR, Customer Service, Inventory. It helps keep us organized between departments. We even have a few external contractors using it to communicate projects within the company. Our production team works different hours from our office staff, so it helps us stay on top of projects that cross departments without the headache of balancing meeting times.
  • Super easy to use!
  • I love that you can set up a project and individual tasks. Those tasks can be assigned to various team members so there is no confusion over who is responsible for the tasks.
  • I love the daily email reminders. Keeps everything right in front of you so you know what deadlines you have for that day.
  • Sometimes it's a little hard to tag someone in a response. If I'm commenting on a task and that person is not associated to it, but is associated to the bigger project it would be nice to be able to tag them in a comment if you need to communicate with them in order to accomplish your task.
  • It would be GREAT if there was integration with the google calendar.
If you have a team of 2 people or 2000, Podio will be a great resource for you.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Podio is being used primarily in a sales capacity as a CRM to manage incoming leads, keep track of those leads within the sales funnel, and assist with tracking business expenses when it comes to company sales (entertainment, supplies, mileage, etc.).
  • Fully customizable!
  • Easy to use on variety of devices.
  • Data is accessible anywhere.
  • It's somewhat complicated to setup out of the gate -- there are so many options.
Podio is suited as:
  1. Great for a CRM.
  2. A project management tool.
  3. Invoice tracking.
  4. Cost/expense tracking.
  5. Sales pipeline.
January 17, 2020

Podio as a new user

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Podio is currently being used to collaborate with developers on our BigCommerce website. We are only using it for the website portion of the business and specifically for development. It has facilitated the communication between our internal team and our external development team. We don't need to coordinate phone calls, we can just chat within the software.
  • Facilitates communication.
  • Organizes projects.
  • The user interface feels dated and is not user-friendly.
This software is great if you are coordinating with an external team for a project. It would be great for internal projects as well, but it's only really needed for complex projects involving multiple people and processes. The development process for our website took much less time than we anticipated because we were able to interact with our external development team in real-time to report bugs and share updates.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We leverage Podio as a collaboration tool in order to get our engineering and sales teams to work together. Podio provides us with easy to generate forms and apps which are consistent and can allow information to flow from one department to another. Additionally, our engineering team leverages Podio in order to send customer satisfaction surveys to our end users as part of project closure.
  • Custom forms
  • Workflow generation
  • Surveys
  • Project scoping via forms
  • Form signature using right signature
  • Additional API integrations
  • Project management workflows
  • Custom actions for workflows which can be triggered via both push and pull methods
Podio is greatly well suited for the generation of custom forms and as a way to create a central knowledge base for a company. The ability to integrate via APIs and create standardized forms can allow you archiving for project delivery. It is a suitable replacement for base camp which provides a lot more features and workflow processes.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Podio as a CRM and database for the whole organization. It stores all our mailing lists, donation history, contacts, and subscription management data. Multiple employees use it, and we integrate with Globiflow to manage orders, automated emails, and letters.
  • It's very flexible; you can create whatever you want based on your data structure.
  • It's easy for non-tech people to use.
  • The integration with Globiflow makes it more than just a database..
  • Some of the documentation on calculations could be easier to understand.
  • It needs inline editing of records.
Really good for flexible database structures. If you need a ton of automation, be prepared to invest time in learning the complexities of Globiflow, but for basic functionality, it's easy to learn and use.
December 07, 2018

Podio for Projects

Kris Lambert | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Podio in primarily a testing manner. Many of our clients use Podio and we integrate our primary product with Podio. We use the software daily as well to be aware of features and workflows that our clients experience. Podio tends to work well in a ticketing manner and even adding contacts.
  • Create Ticket Style tasks to work existing items.
  • Using flows to follow an item from inception to sale.
  • The reporting for Podio is difficult to create and minimal.
  • Booking Page connected to the calendar would be nice.
Podio is well suited to use in ticket style environments that also utilize workflows or life cycles. I feel the reporting area needs great improvement but this system works well for task management and contact management. Multiple Workspaces do help to create team specific areas for working categorized items. Private workspaces are also a nice feature.
Stephanie Simon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Podio is used company wide by all employees at all levels, our business partners and even our clients. Podio allows us 24/7 real-time sharing of information and communication. Everyone receives updates at the same time, and tasks are assigned automatically when actions are taken, making the work flow much more efficient. It allows for transparency and monitoring as well.
  • Incredibly easy customization of applications.
  • Powerful communication platform.
  • Great integration with 3rd party application allowing for additional features in Podio.
  • Strong automated task assignments.
  • Calendar functionality is very limited to a point that it is a feature we cannot use.
  • Printing format of reports could have a better design.
  • It would be great if we could hide archived workspaces.
Podio is great for project management, but not so great for calendaring.
Kim Westermann | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Podio across our organization. We are a nonprofit housing agency with offices in different cities in NC. We use Podio to organize events, to track projects, and as an agency-wide intranet for our employees. Podio cuts down on the number of emails employees receive and helps managers keep their eye on the progress of specific projects.
  • Podio tasks lists are very helpful - employees can keep private task lists or assign their tasks to shared workspaces so their colleagues can pick up on something if they are out sick.
  • Workspaces are very flexible and can be set up to include any number of employees or outside partners. You can design your own apps to help get work done, so everything is 100% customizable.
  • The chat function and the activity feed in workspaces gives people a place to chat without filling up everyone's email inboxes.
  • The calendar function in Podio is its weakest function. It's hard to sync Podio calendars to Outlook calendars, and the personal calendar is difficult to customize.
  • There is a definite learning curve with Podio, especially for older employees who didn't grow up with social media.
  • You really need a Podio administrator who helps people set up workspaces and apps for the first year. There is a danger in over-using the software, or expecting it to fix other organizational issues.
We've used Podio for staff recruitment, event planning, and our agency wide intranet. Our property management team has also used it for specific projects, like tracking all of the tasks associated with turning an apartment. Individual employees use it to manage their own task lists. It works less well for calendar-based tasks or for complex and long term project management (i.e. new construction). There are times when a project is just too complicated for Podio automations, so the software should be used to track basic items and remind users where they can find more information.
Bohdan Cole | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Podio is used across the whole organization. We use it for all teams currently to coordinate everything from content tasks, SEO tasks, design tasks, support tasks, and all items related to launching a new website. We also use it for social media tasks, and all other realms that our company is involved in.
  • Documents feedback, keeps tasks organized under a particular entity.
  • Notifying team members when something is needed (assuming you tag them).
  • Support Ticket documentation.
  • Unless you setup a set email folder for new Podio notifications, it is easy for some notifications to get lost when you need a team member to know about something.
  • Attachment limit size per task- 100MB- a bit too small.
  • Seems to be having a lot of downtime lately
It is well suited for full scope project management and task management. It could be better for client facing avenues and tracking tasks/notifying clients when something is done- and separating what the client sees, versus what internal teams see. It is a robust tool that has many uses. It would be great if it could start to import links, project managers and other team member names from the Sales/Companies/Clients entities, into things like Project portals- knowing that they are the same and have the same people involved.
March 21, 2017

Join the Podio Rodeo!

Tip Iuliucci | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I manage a small group of real estate agents for a team within a larger real estate firm. Podio is used to track our leads and incoming business as "projects" between myself and the assigned agent or agents as the project might call for. All agents use the product on their desktops and on their cell phones.
  • The phone app works great
  • Allows us to communicate inline on a specific project or task
  • Easy search functions
  • Customizable
  • Good product support
  • Could be easier to learn how to customize the product
  • Offer fee-based support options to help groups like us to customize the software
As I indicated, we use it to track leads as "projects". This works well and using the email notifications or push notifications allows us to quickly communicate on the status/progress of these projects. We've not figured out yet how to use it to manage our active clients/pipelines. That's something we're going to explore for our needs
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Podio to organize projects across departments. One such example is creating webforms that are utilized by interns when they are completing site observations to alert upper management of problems. We also use the calendar frequently to manage deliverable due dates. The ability to create apps or customize current apps within Podio to meet our companies needs is extremely beneficial.
  • Ability to create customized web forms (think Google Forms)
  • Ability to push calendar notifications to various email platforms
  • Mobile application is extremely helpful for when projects need to be completed on the go
  • The calendar is helpful, but it's not customizable yet. It'd be great if there could be color coding options to help with the organization.
It simplifies communication in an organization and with clients. It's well suited for organizations that need help staying organized with their projects or need a single platform that can manage everything in one spot.
June 08, 2016

Great website

Morgan Kendrick | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Helps us see who is doing what on a project. We enter what we're doing in the description field and it really helps us to see how far along we are on a project.
  • Descriptive.
  • I like the status feature on the main network, because you can share with everyone.
  • I like the contacts feature, because it let's me see who's available.
  • Providing less e-mails
  • Over-all look and feel
  • I don't like that it doesn't remember me when I log-in.
Podio is well suited for media production. We can add our own fields and apps to the website, which really helps our department, because we do specific things in the media production field that other people may not do, such as filming location, and Service Level Agreement file attachment option.
Amy Smoucha | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Podio to document our work and facilitate internal communications for our many moving projects. We chose Podio to foster internal communications and manage a diverse array of projects because Podio is incredibly flexible, and creating and relating data sets in "Apps" is very easy. Like a lot of non-profits, the projects and campaigns we advance require us to track varying levels of information. Podio allows us to flexibly change, add or subtract data we need to track and assess. The "relationship" fields available as a building block within Apps also allows us to aggregate data and use Podio in a relational way.

Because Podio's structure and navigation are very intuitive (a lot like social media platforms), adoption to Podio by our staff has been relatively easy and has not required too much training or development.

Lastly, using an online work collaboration or project management platform like Podio significantly increases efficiency and reduces the tendency to keep duplicative information in many places. In general, it allows us to store information, documents and updates in one place that everyone can access, review or query. It's a game changer!
  • Very easy for people without coding or technical skills to set up and maintain information in "Apps".
  • Platform is very easy to learn and adopt--it's intuitive.
  • Project management potential is awesome--instead of having to fit your projects into a structure that is industry specific, you can build an app that tracks what you want, in the order you want it.
  • Has a "relationship" field that allows you to relate an individual item or record to a record in another app. It effectively gives some of the functionality of a relational database.
  • Very useful for information sharing when staff members are in different regions or places.
  • Podio has different types of "contacts," including Workspace contacts, and that is a form of hard-wired data that is hard to figure out how to use. You also can't easily import or export contacts.
  • For longer term record keeping, it takes some strategic thinking to figure out how to archive, or make dormant, old or outdated information. It can be done in a variety of ways (by manipulating "views," using "category" fields or cloning apps and data to an archive workspace, but it takes some real thought.
I think Podio is flexible enough to be useful to almost any non profit or business. We built a suite of apps for event planning that completely streamlined our planning and logistics.
February 16, 2016

Neat Interface

Bargav Kondapu | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Podio was used on our project team. It was used to keep track of bugs and issues. We also used it for collaborating between team members. Since most of our team members are spread across globe Podio acted as a point of collaboration.
  • Neat Interface.
  • Unlike other collaboration software, Podio gives you flexibility to customize workflows with ease.
  • Multiple spaces.
  • Difficult to understand for new users.
  • Too many notifications.
Most of our team members, work in a different timezone, but Podio made our team communication easier. We use Bitbucket for code hosting and integration. Podio did a wonderful job of integrating with Bitbucket
Harold Klaassen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using Podio ourselves as an CRM, as a tool to manage our buyer personas, a tool to collect and structure our content assets. We are implementing Podio for customers, mostly as a CRM, but also as content management tool and content curation tool.

We are a small company and everyone is using Podio and the Podio iPhone app.

As a CRM it is a good alternative for larger tools like SugarCRM and Salesforce because it is very easy to adjust to changing needs and requirements. What takes months to change in the other CRM's takes days in Podio.
  • Can be used for all kinds of business departments (HR, Finance, Development, Sales, etc)
  • A big App Market Place with predesigned apps (free)
  • Low Cost solution - High Flexibilty - Easy to use
  • Podio is an open platform, it isn't difficult to connect with it or to build another interface for it
  • Automated workflows must be improved (now there are third party solutions)
  • Podio workspaces should have the ability to (co) brand
  • Faster data entry possibilities
Podio is best suited for small to mid-sized companies. The workflows shouldn't be too complicated. Podio is very well designed to easily connect with other tools, so it can fit in almost every existing tool set you might (want to) use.

For less than 5 users you can use Podio for free. That is perfect for selecting a right tool for you. Start building the apps you need, or look for them in the app market. Import demo data and tweak the apps and work spaces until it matches your requirements. If you find it too difficult or you are missing key functionality then Podio isn't the platform for you and your business.
Jan Florian Maas | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Podio is our magic toolbox for managing any kind of project and communication. Web based collaboration changed our business in the last two years. First, we worked internally with Podio to get more structured with ideas. Then, we dived into customer relation management and agile project management. That was the point, where other solutions felt stiffy, but Podio gave flexibility. Furthermore, Podio streamlined our communication and coordination of planning in many ways. Now, we are working with most of our customers within Podio, together.
  • If anything has to be tweaked or changed – in Podio you can do that in minutes!
  • If you need high security and want the maximum possible transparency of what is shared to whom or who is allowed to see your data – Podio's concept of work spaces is great!
  • Easy communication – get in contact with any team member or Podio user: chat, audio or video conferencing is just one click away!
  • Work the way you want – in Podio it's easy to structure your data in Apps and to configure workflows that meet your personal needs.
  • More filter options for calendars.
  • Customizable views for Relation fields.
  • Full featured Podio mobile App for iPad.
  • A customizable profile status – would love to work with Podio in silent mode (logged in while working, but "not available" for requests when in heavy work mode)
Some people seemed to be confused by too many options. Customizing your work in a digital workspace needs means rethinking your possibilities by knowing your toolset well. In the beginning, I was a little bit frustrated, because I didn't see all these options and there was a lack of best practise. Studying the large Podio App Store solutions helped me to understand. If you do not have the time it's the best moment for getting in contact with one of the Podio partners.
Nando Cabán-Méndez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
I customized a collaboration workspace in Podio for a distributed content marketing team. The entire team (8, at one point) used it for everything from CRM and client sign-up, to project and service management.

Allowed to very effectively run a complex business
In its simplest form, Podio is a very advanced web and mobile-based task manager. It allows one to assign tasks to others and be notified when those are complete. Tasks can be referenced to what it calls "apps" (more like modules, easy to modify). Once I learned I could customize and cross-reference these internal apps , I created an app called "Clients", "Deliverables", "Campaigns", and "Content Planner" (A comprehensive content calendar: blog, social, email, etc.). This allowed for project management of all deliverables for clients, from setups to ongoing marketing, bulk upload of deliverables and content calendar, and lots of other good stuff.

Killed email, with its annoying CC's and ReplyAlls
Team communications happen within Podio, ideally within the comments space of the app (much like we do on social media). For instance, to follow up on an article draft for a deliverable due next week, instead of emailing the team member, I'd make a comment and “@ mention” the responsible person within the content unit. When they reply, the comments become a history for all team members to see. We could @ mention the graphic designer regarding an image needed and bring her into the conversation that way.
This way of working reduced our internal email to practically zero.

Lets one have a big picture, and also dive deep into details.
Because of the way if works, if set-up correctly, One can have a calendar view of the work being done, or a task view, or table with progress indicators.

A single point for all business info
Podio can substitute your CRM software, project management, have custom modules suited to specific business needs, and integrate with outside SaaS tools.

Did I mention it has great iPhone and Android mobile apps?


  • Tool is vastly customizable. They're not kidding when their tag line says: “Work the way you do”
  • The mobile apps are top notch. One can even customize how much of the desktop functionality one wants in the mobile app!
  • Eliminates the need for internal email. (This alone should be plenty good)
  • Expedites communication about big ideas or menial tasks. Makes teams more agile.
  • Like a set of old-school Lego, you must know what you want to do with it before digging in. Just creating an account to “give it a try” won't do. This requires planning, and discipline to execute.
  • As of the date of the review, some functions, like CRM fall a little short of dedicated SaaS solutions. A lot can be achieved, however, with API and outside extension.
  • Again, as of date of review: No built-in task dependencies or Gantt chart functionality.
  • Somewhere along the line we lost Google Apps integration, which was a great way to clean the inbox. One used to be able to create a Task from within a message, which in turn would include the body of the email message for reference.
  • Calendar integration is convoluted. Global calendar, Workspace calendars. IT gets a little unwieldy to manage.
  • Sharing with clients is impractical.
Better-suited:
Small companies with a distributed workforce that need structure in their process (as opposed to relying on shared spreadsheets or post-it-notes for process)
Great for any team that has had trouble implementing other, more rigid, project management tools (since they can customize this one)

Less-suited:
For technical reasons, it's not very good if you need or want to include clients in the conversations. One can work around this limitation, but also found out our clients didn't care to see the ghost inside the machine.

March 11, 2015

Podio Review

Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Podio is used by the entire organization. It keeps our projects on task.
  • It allows your co-workers to get notifications when a change is made.
  • It allows managers to track changes and get updates without meeting in person.
  • It's great for cross-departmental communication and approval processes.
  • It would be great it they could generate emails based off the information entered in specific fields (for example: we book our travel in this app and I would like an email with all of the information rather than going in and looking it up each time).
  • It would be more helpful if there was a better way to connect vendors with contracts ( like the way Salesforce does).
  • It's not super convenient for our accounting department when it comes to overall budgets.
March 11, 2015

Gave it a try.

Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We tried Podio for a few weeks among fou of us at the agency. As an organization with remote workers, we were looking for a central web home for operations. We wanted a place for storing documents, quick chats, account updates, personal news, meeting notes, all of the daily water cooler type of stuff.
  • Easy to use.
  • Pricing reasonable - free for us.
  • Easy access.
  • Adding 'one more thing' to check proved the downfall.
  • Interface with google docs wasn't smooth.
If the organization wasn't on Google docs, I would recommend Podio. Key questions? How do you manage your organization's daily interaction now? Obviously good for remote teams where you have multiple locations, timezones. etc. Also will be more valuable to larger organizations. For us, it was just as easy to do without.
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